WordPress to LaTeX with Pandoc and J: Using TeXfrWpxml.ijs (Part 3)
February 25, 2012 4 Comments
WordPress to LaTeX
In this post I will describe how to use the J script TeXfrWpxml.ijs to generate LaTeX source from WordPress export XML. I am assuming you have worked through (Part 1) and (Part 2) and have:
- Successfully installed and tested Pandoc.
- Installed and tested a version of J.
- Set up appropriate directories (Part 2).
- Know how to use LaTeX.
Item #4 is a big if. Inexperienced LaTeX users will probably not enjoy a lot of success with this procedure as the source generated by TeXfrWpxml.ijs requires manual edits to produce good results. However, if you’re not a LaTeX guru, do not get discouraged. It’s not difficult to create blog documents like bm.pdf.
Step 1: download WordPress Export XML
How to download WordPress export XML is described here. Basically you go to your blog’s dashboard, select Tools, choose Export and select the All content option.
Tools > Export > All Content
When you press the Download Export File button your browser will download a single XML file that contains all your posts and comments. Remember where you save this file. I put my export XML here.
c:/pd/blog/wordpress/analyzethedatanotthedrivel.wordpress.xml
Step 2: download TeXfrWpxml.ijs
Download TeXfrWpxml.ijs and remember where you save it. I put this script here.
c:/pd/blog/TeXfrWpxml.ijs
Step 3: start J and load TeXfrWpxml.ijs
TeXfrWpxml.ijs was generated from JOD dictionaries. With JOD it’s easy to capture root word dependencies and produce complete standalone scripts. TeXfrWpxml.ijs needs only the standard J load profile to run. It does not require any libraries or external references and should run on all Windows and Linux versions of J after 6.01. Loading this script is a simple matter of executing:
load 'c:/pd/blog/TeXfrWpxml.ijs'
The following shows this script running in a J 7.01 console. The console is the most stripped down J runtime.
Step 4: review directories and necessary LaTeX files
The conversion script assumes proper directories are available up: see Part 2. The first time you run TeXfrWpxml.ijs it’s a good idea to check that the directories and files the script is expecting are the ones you want to process. You can verify the settings by displaying TEXFRWPDIR, TEXINCLUSIONS, TEXROOTFILE and TEXPREAMBLE.
TEXPREAMBLE bmamble.tex TEXFRWPDIR c:/pd/blog/wp2latex/ TEXINCLUSIONS inclusions TEXROOTFILE bm.tex TEXPREAMBLE bmamble.tex
If all these directories and files exist go to step (5).
Step 5: make sure you are online
The first time you run the converter it will attempt to download all the images referenced in your blog. This is where wget.exe gets executed. Obviously to download anything you must be connected to the Internet.
Step 6: run LatexFrWordpress
Run the verb LatexFrWordpress. The monadic version of this verb takes a single argument: the complete path and file name of the export XML file you downloaded in step (1).
xml=: 'c:/pd/blog/wordpress/analyzethedatanotthedrivel.wordpress.xml'
LatexFrWordpress xml
As the verb runs you will see output like:
LatexFrWordpress xml What's In it for Facebook? downloading: c:/pd/blog/wp2latex/inclusions/demotivational-posters-facebook-you.jpg 1 downloaded; 0 not downloaded; 0 skipped Fake Programming downloading: c:/pd/blog/wp2latex/inclusions/672169130_vajvn-M.png 1 downloaded; 0 not downloaded; 0 skipped Laws or Suggestions downloading: c:/pd/blog/wp2latex/inclusions/i-B5mfdRF-M.jpg 1 downloaded; 0 not downloaded; 0 skipped Lens Lust ... many lines omitted ... downloading: c:/pd/blog/wp2latex/inclusions/i-mNK4RHL-M.png 1 downloaded; 0 not downloaded; 0 skipped WordPress to LaTeX with Pandoc and J: LaTeX Directories (Part 2) 0 downloaded; 0 not downloaded; 1 skipped +-++ |1|| +-++
When the verb terminates you should have a directory c:/pd/blog/wp2latex full of *.tex files: one file for each blog post. Now the hard work starts.
Step 7: editing LaTeX posts
The conversion from WordPress XML to LaTeX produces files that require manual edits. The more images, video, tables and other elements in your posts the more demanding these edits will become. My blog has about one image per post. Most of these images are wrapped by text. LaTeX has a mind of its own when it comes to floating figures and getting illustrations to behave requires far more parameter tweaking than it should. This is a longstanding weakness of LaTeX that pretty much everyone bitches about. My advice is start at the front of your document and work through it post by post. The files generated by LatexFrWordpress do not attempt to place figures for you but they do bolt in ready-made figure templates as comments that you can experiment with. Each post file is also set up for separate LaTeX compilation. You don’t have to compile your entire blog to tweak one post. The one good thing about this edit step is once you have sorted out your old posts you do not have to revisit them unless you make major global document changes. The next time you run LatexFrWordpress it will only bring down new posts and images.
Step 8: compile your LaTeX blog
I use batch files and shell scripts to drive LaTeX compilations. I processed my blog with this batch file.
echo off rem process blog posting (bm.tex) root file title Running Blog Master/LaTeX ... rem first pass for aux file needed by bibtex lualatex bm rem generate/reset bbl file bibtex bm makeindex bm rem resolve all internal references - may rem comment out when debugging entire document lualatex bm lualatex bm rem display pdf - point to prefered PDF reader title Blog Master/LaTeX complete displaying PDF ... "C:\Program Files\SumatraPDF\SumatraPDF.exe" bm.pdf
The presence of Unicode APL, see this post, forced me to use lualatex. I needed some very nonstandard APL fonts. See bm.pdf — also available on the Download this Blog page — to judge the effectiveness of my edits. Producing nice figure laden typeset blog documents is work but, as I will describe in the next post, producing image free eBooks is a simple and far less laborious variation on this process.
About John Baker
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Could you message me with some pointers about how you made this blog site look this good, I would be appreciative.
Most of the work is down by the theme. To get started I would browse the WordPress themes. Most of them come with fairly clear controls that let you set backgrounds, menus, fonts and so forth. The only manual interventions I do are placing figures and inserting the odd bit of HTML and LaTeX.